How Closely Do You Look at Your Restaurant Checks?

I'll admit that I'm guilty of simply glancing at the items on checks at restaurants. It's not like I don't pay attention to the total — of course, I'd notice if my bill was much higher than expected — I just don't scrutinize everything listed. What about you?

I hate check nitpickers. I refuse to dine with them.
Yes, I do understand sometimes someone just has a salad, or doesn't have drinks... and I account for that. But I hate when there's someone who's nickel and diming the bill.
A recent phenomenon... which I LOVE... seems to keep happening at a new restaurant in our hood... everyone antes up for the check and we have a TON of money left over. No one wants change either.
So, we tip our server heavily and take the rest to the bar [where we get free drinks from our friend the bartender] and we lay down the remainder for his tip. It's like being in heaven.
IF you're a nickel and dimer, please don't ask me to go to dinner with you.

I am like the IRS with restaurant bills, Just this past tuesday We were in st augustine for the afternoon, went to eat, i ordered the "fried oyster po boy" and my husband got the Hamburger , anyway the check came and they had charged us for the fried Oyster platter (full 3 bucks more) and an iced tea that we didnt get (i had water) It happens alot, especially if the place is busy like this was.
But i would still recomment the place it was yummy
Florida Cracker Cafe, st george street st augustine!

I look at everything. I worked briefly at a small hotel restaurant and once observed the manager add small charges to several tables in a single night. $3 dollars to 10 tables a night adds up by the end of the week. I do not know what he did with the money and I didn't ask. I quit after 2 weeks. Not everyone is dishonest but it makes sense to check carefully when dealing with your money. That is my stance anyway.

I always look- how do you know if you were charged enough OR too much?? I will tell the server either way. And I tip 20% (before a coupon, note) unless the service is bad- then 10-15%. I have only not tipped once and that is because the server ignored us the whole night and then eventually disappeared!
And remedios- that is awful! It should be more prominent on the menu and they should have signs saying they automatically add a gratuity.

I've been a server for many years and you should ALWAYS at the very least glance at it! Almost every server at one point, no matter how good, is guilty of splitting up a check wrong or even presenting the wrong check. It is an honest mistake as we are human.
But there is nothing more frustrating than someone who hands over their credit card without even looking at the check, and then after you charge their credit card- THEN they have questions or concerns about the bill. But by that point, the card has already been charged and you can't undo that and it takes a billing cycle sometimes for adjustments to be made. So again, you should always at least glance at it!

minaminamina - that is really a shame that our tips arent going where they should. I think this just points to changing the system. Perhaps we need a system where the workers actually get PAID more salarywise and a tip wasnt essential to their well-being. A tip needs to be a bonus not the actual income itself.

i always look
if i'm dining with friends and something of there ends up on my bill thats cool - i don't mind picking up things for friends or family
my big reason for checking is to make sure the waiter or waitress has not made an error and charged us for something we didn't order
it's human to make errors
no body's perfect
i like to double check

My boyfriend just gives his credit card without even looking at the check. It's probably the only thing I find really annoying about him. I can't understand how he can trust people like that. Mistakes happen all the time. On the other hand, I'm not gonna complain to the waiter if there's only a small mistake, and I'll tip more if he didn't charge us for drinks or extras.

I'm a hawk. I check the bill thoroughly to insure that I have been billed for every item I did not receive and not double or triple for a single item order by mistake. I will even inform a server if I wasn't billed for something that I received. I just prefer to be absolutely straight with people.

I hope all of you in the US are tipping well on top of checking your check before you pay! Cost of living has gone up and many servers are ending up paying for their tables at tip-out time because people are tipping 10-15% (and often lower) rather than 18-20%. Remedios, added gratuity no matter the size of the party is usually a scam for the restaurants, not on behalf of the servers - servers have to claim that tip, use it to tip out, and usually the house sees the profits of it. I HOPE people were double tipping at that restaurant so those servers could actually earn the money they're forced to pay 8% taxes on.

I look over it carefully and have no problem in telling the server if something is incorrect. There's not chance in hell I am paying for something I shouldn't. BUT, I am also a really good tipper. So as long as they do the job well, they'll get my money!

If waiters/waitresses didn't make mistakes, I would never have to look at the check. But they do...often...especially when dining with other people and getting separate checks (even if it's just with one other person). So I'm better off being vigilant about checking.

If there's a mistake, I often wonder if it wasn't a mistake at all, but intentionally added on. This doesn't happen often, though.
As to scrutinizing, I actually look more after getting it back with the credit card run through.
There's actually a place nearby that adds on the gratuity regardless of the size of the party. It's mentioned on the menu but not prominently. It'll show on the bill, but when the server returns after swiping the card, the check is no longer there. But there sure is a spot to add a tip. I wonder how many times people have double tipped. Probably a lot. It's a scam. This was a long time ago, so I hope they've learned to stop doing that.